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{{Short description|Native American tribe in Virginia, US}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group = Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Tribe
| group = Nottoway
| image = Chief Walter D. "Red Hawk" Brown III.jpg
| image = File:Nottoway River.jpg
| image_caption = Chief Walter D. "Red Hawk" Brown III of the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe
| image_caption = Nottoway River in historic Nottoway territory
| population = [[Courtland, Virginia]]
| popplace = [[Virginia]]
| langs = [[English language|English]], [[Nottoway language|Nottoway]] (historical)
Cattashowrock Reservation : 500
| related = [[Nansemond]], [[Weyanock]],<ref name=rountree194/> [[Meherrin]], [[Tuscarora people|Tuscarora]]
| popplace = [[Southampton County, Virginia]]
}}


The '''Nottoway''' (also '''Nottaway''') are an [[Iroquoian Peoples|Iroquoian]] [[Native American tribes in Virginia|Native American tribe in Virginia]]. The Nottoway spoke a [[Nottoway language]] in the [[Iroquoian language family]].
[[Isle of Wight, Virginia]]


== Names ==
[[Nottoway, Virginia]]
The term ''Nottoway'' may derive from ''Nadawa'' or ''Nadowessioux'' (widely translated as "poisonous snake"), an [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian-language]] term.


[[Frank Siebert]] suggested that the term ''natowewa'' stems from [[Proto-Algonquian language|Proto-Algonquian]] ''*na:tawe:wa'' and refers to the [[Massasauga]], a [[pit viper]] of the [[Great Lakes]] region. The extension of the meaning as "Iroquoian speakers" is secondary.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} In Algonquian languages beyond the geographical range of the viper (i.e. [[Cree language|Cree]]–[[Innu language|Innu]]–[[Naskapi language|Naskapi]] and [[Eastern Algonquian languages|Eastern Algonquian]]), the term's primary reference continues to focus on ''*na:t-'' 'close upon, mover towards, go after, seek out, fetch' and ''*-awe:'' 'condition of heat, state of warmth,' but no longer refers to the viper.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}
[[Alexandria, Virginia]]
| langs = [[English language|English]], Iroquoian [[Nottoway language|Nottoway]] (historical)
| related = [[Nansemond]], [[Chowanoke]], [[Susquehannock]], [[Meherrin]], [[Tuscarora people|Tuscarora]], [[Iroquoian people]]
}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group = Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia,Inc.
| image = ChiefLynetteLewisAllstonNOVA.jpg
| image_caption = Chief Lynette Allston of the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia
| population = Nottoway Indian Tribe of VA: [[Southampton County, Virginia|Southampton County]] into [[Surry County, Virginia|Surry County]]: 180
| popplace = {{USA}}, [[Virginia]]
| langs = [[English language|English]], Iroquoian [[Nottoway language|Nottoway]] (historical)
| related = [[Meherrin]], [[Tuscarora people|Tuscarora]], [[Nansemond]], [[Chowanoke]]
}}


A potential etymology in Virginia of ''*na:tawe:wa'' (Nottoway) refers to ''*na:t-'' 'seeker' + ''-awe:'' 'fur,'<ref>{{cite book|last=Siebert|first=Frank T.|year=1996 |title=Anthropological Linguistics|series=Vol. 38, No.4|pages=635–642}}</ref> or literally 'traders'<ref>{{cite book|last=Woodard|first=Buck|year=2010|title=Ethnographic View of the Nottoway, 1700–1750}}</ref> The earliest colonial Virginia reference to "Nottoway" also frames Algonquian/Iroquoian exchanges in terms of trade: roanoke (shell beads) for skins (deer and otter).<ref>{{cite book|last=Bland|first=Edward |year=1650|title=The Discovery of New Brittaine}}</ref>
The '''Nottoway''' are a [[Native American tribes in Virginia|Native American tribe in Virginia]]. Historically, the Nottoway spoke an Iroquoian language, [[Nottoway language|Nottoway]], and were related to other Iroquoian speakers.


The Algonquian speakers also referred to the Nottoway, [[Meherrin]] and [[Tuscarora people]] (also of the Iroquoian-language family) as ''Mangoak'' or ''Mangoags'', a term which English colonists used in their records from 1584 to 1650. This term, ''Mengwe'' or ''Mingwe'', was used by the Dutch and applied to the Iroquoian [[Susquehannock]] ("White ''Minquas''") and [[Erie people]] ("Black ''Minquas''").{{cn|date=March 2022}}
The '''Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia''' live from [[Southampton County, Virginia|Southampton County]] into [[Surry County, Virginia|Surry County]] and the [[Tidewater region]].<ref>[http://www.nottowayindians.org/aboutus.html, Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, Inc.], Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, Inc.</ref> The '''Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe''' live in [[Southampton County, Virginia|Southampton County]] in their traditional tribal territory, known as [[Cattashowrock Town]] in [[Courtland, Virginia|Courtland]].<ref>[http://www.cheroenhaka-nottoway.org/home.htm, Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe], Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe</ref> Since colonial times, treaties by regional government with the Nottoway attested to their presence as a distinct people.


The name ''Cheroenhaka'' is an [[Endonym and exonym|autonym]] for Nottoway people.<ref name=hodge>{{cite book |last1=Hodge |first1=Frederick Webb |title=Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico: N-Z |date=1912 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |location=Washington, DC |page=87 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UOwpAQAAMAAJ&q=Cheroenhaka}}</ref> The meaning of the name ''Cheroenhaka'' (in [[Tuscarora language|Tuscarora]]: ''Čiruʼęhá·ka·ʼ''<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Blair A. Rudes|last=Rudes|first=Blair A.|title=Tuscarora English Dictionary|location=Toronto|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1999}}</ref>) is uncertain. (It has been spelled in various ways: ''Cherohakah'', ''Cheroohoka'' or ''Tcherohaka''.) The linguist [[Blair A. Rudes]] analyzed the second element as ''-hakaʼ'' meaning "one or people who is/are characterized in a certain way." He conjectured that the first element of the name was related to the Tuscarora term ''čárhuʼ'' (meaning "tobacco", as both tribes used this product in ceremonies).<ref name=sketch>{{cite book|author-link=Blair A. Rudes|last=Rudes|first=Blair|title=Sketch of the Nottoway Language from a Historical-Comparative Perspective|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1981}}</ref> The term has also been interpreted as "People at the Fork of the Stream".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cheroenhaka-nottoway.org/nottoway-history/snap-shot.htm|title=Cheroenhaka Nottoway Indian Tribe History}}</ref>
The Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Tribe are distinct, with separate identities. Each of the contemporary tribes received state recognition in February 2010.<ref>[http://leg6.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?101+sum+SJ12, SJ12 Nottoway Indian Tribe; extending state recognition thereto and grants representation on VCI.], Legislative Information System</ref><ref>[http://leg6.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?101+sum+sj127, SJ127 Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe; extending state recognition thereto, representation on VCI.], Legislative Information System</ref> They were among several Virginia tribes that were deprived of their land during the colonial era, and their records were distorted by racial discrimination during the early 20th century. The Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe has filed their letter of intent to petition for federal recognition and hope to receive federal recognition soon.


==Language==
The Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Rappahanock, Nansemond, Monacan, and Upper Mattaponi received federal recognition as tribes by Congressional action in January 2018. The Pamunkey tribe was granted federal recognition in 2015. Four state-recognized tribes in Virginia are still seeking federal recognition: the Nottoway Indian Tribe, Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Tribe, Mattaponi Indian tribe and Reservation, and Patawomeck tribe.
The [[Nottoway language]] is an [[Iroquoian language]]. It became extinct well before 1900.<ref name=sketch/> At the time of European contact in 1650, speakers numbered only in the hundreds. From then until 1735, a number of colonists learned the language and acted as official interpreters for the [[Colony of Virginia]], including Thomas Blunt, Henry Briggs, and Thomas Wynn. These interpreters also served the adjacent [[Meherrin]], as well as the [[Nansemond]], who spoke Nottoway in addition to their own Algonquian dialect of [[Powhatan language|Powhatan]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Helen Rountree|title=Pocahontas's People|page=108}}</ref> The last two interpreters were dismissed in 1735 since the Nottoway by then were using English.


By 1820, three elderly people still spoke Nottoway.<ref name=sketch/> In that year John Wood collected over 250-word samples from one of these, Chief [[Edith Turner]] (Nottoway, ca. 1754–1838). He sent them to [[Thomas Jefferson]], who shared them with [[Peter Stephen Du Ponceau]]. In their correspondence, these two men quickly confirmed that the Nottoway language was of the Iroquoian family. Several additional words, for a total of about 275, were collected by [[James Trezvant]] after 1831 and published by [[Albert Gallatin]] in 1836.{{cn|date=March 2022}}
==Name==
The meaning of the name ''Cheroenhaka'' (in [[Tuscarora language|Tuscarora]]: ''Čiruʼęhá·ka·ʼ''<ref>[[Blair A. Rudes|Rudes, Blair A.]] ''Tuscarora English Dictionary'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999</ref>) is uncertain. (It has been spelled in various ways: ''Cherohakah'', ''Cheroohoka'' or ''Tcherohaka''.) The late Iroquoian scholar [[Blair A. Rudes]] analyzed the second element as ''-hakaʼ'' meaning "one or people who is/are characterized in a certain way". He conjectured that the first element of the name was related to the Tuscarora term ''čárhuʼ'' (meaning "tobacco", as both tribes used this product in ceremonies).<ref>Rudes, Blair, ''Sketch of the Nottoway Language from a Historical-Comparative Perspective'', University of Chicago Press, 1981.</ref> The term has also been interpreted as "People at the Fork of the Stream".<ref>[http://www.cheroenhaka-nottoway.org/nottoway-history/snap-shot.htm Cheroenhaka Nottoway Indian Tribe History]</ref>


In the early 20th century, [[John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt]] (1910) and Hoffman (1959) analyzed the Nottoway vocabulary in comparison with [[Tuscarora language|Tuscarora]], also Iroquoian, and found them closely related.{{cn|date=March 2022}}
The term ''Nottoway'' may derive from ''Nadawa'' or ''Nadowessioux'' (widely translated as "poisonous snake"), an [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian-language]] term. Algonquian tribes occupied the coastal areas and used this term to refer to the Iroquoian- or [[Siouan languages|Siouan]]-speaking tribes of the interior, with whom they competed. Because the Algonquian occupied the coastal areas, they were the first tribes met by the English. The colonists often adopted use of such Algonquian [[ethnonym]]s, names for other tribes, not realizing at first that these differed from the tribes' [[Endonym|autonyms]], or names for themselves.


== History ==
Frank Siebert suggests the term ''natowewa'' stems from [[Proto-Algonquian language|Proto-Algonquian]] ''*na:tawe:wa'' and refers to the [[Massasauga]], a [[pit viper]] of the [[Great Lakes]] region. The extension of the meaning as "Iroquoian speakers" is secondary. In Algonquian languages beyond the geographical range of the viper (i.e. [[Cree language|Cree]]–[[Innu language|Innu]]–[[Naskapi language|Naskapi]] and [[Eastern Algonquian languages|Eastern Algonquian]]), the term's primary reference continues to focus on ''*na:t-'' 'close upon, mover towards, go after, seek out, fetch' and ''*-awe:'' 'condition of heat, state of warmth,' but no longer refers to the viper.
=== 17th–century ===
The Nottoway, like their close, fellow Iroquoian neighbors, the Meherrin and Tuscarora, lived just west of the [[Atlantic Seaboard fall line|Fall Line]] in the [[Piedmont (United States)|Piedmont]] region. English explorer [[Edward Bland (explorer)|Edward Bland]] is believed to have been the first European to encounter them when he made an expedition from [[Fort Henry (Virginia)|Fort Henry]]. He noted meeting them in his journal on August 27, 1650. At the time, the Nottoway numbered no more than 400 to 500. Bland visited two of their three towns, on Stony Creek and the Rowantee Branch of the [[Nottoway River]], in what is now [[Sussex County, Virginia|Sussex County]]. These towns were led by the brothers Oyeocker and Chounerounte.{{cn|date=March 2022}}


A Nottoway representative signed the [[Treaty of Middle Plantation of 1677]] in 1680, establishing the tribe as a tributary to the Virginia colony.<ref name=rountree194>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 194.</ref> English squatters encroached on their lands.<ref name=rountree194/>
Instead, particularly in the South, the 'Iroquoian' designation is primary. The semantic meaning may not relate to snakes at all, but refer to the cultural trading position of the Virginia-Carolina Iroquois as middle men between Algonquian and Siouan speakers. Other historical developments in Algonquian languages extend the meaning of ''*-awe'' to 'fur or hair' (i.e. Cree, Innu, Ojibway, Shawnee), an obvious relationship to 'state of warmth.' A potential etymology in Virginia of ''*na:tawe:wa'' (Nottoway) refers to ''*na:t-'' 'seeker' + ''-awe:'' 'fur,'<ref>Siebert, Frank T. (1996) ''Anthropological Linguistics'', Vol. 38, No.4, pp. 635–642.</ref> or literally 'traders'<ref>Woodard, Buck (2010). ''Ethnographic View of the Nottoway, 1700–1750''</ref> The earliest colonial Virginia reference to "Nottoway" also frames Algonquian/Iroquoian exchanges in terms of trade: roanoke (shell beads) for skins (deer and otter).<ref>Bland, Edward (1650). ''The Discovery of New Brittaine''</ref>


By 1681, hostile tribes caused the Nottoway to relocate southward to Assamoosick Swamp in modern Surry County. In 1694 they moved again, to the mouth of a swamp in what is now [[Southampton County, Virginia|Southampton County]]. Around this time, they absorbed the remnants of the [[Weyanoke people|Weyanoke]], an Algonquian-speaking tribe that had formerly been part of the [[Powhatan]] confederacy.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas C. Parramore|year=1978|title=Southampton County|pages=1–5}}</ref>
The Algonquian speakers also referred to the Nottoway, [[Meherrin]] and [[Tuscarora people]] (also of the Iroquoian-language family) as ''Mangoak'' or ''Mangoags'', a term which English colonists used in their records from 1584 to 1650. This term, ''Mengwe'' or ''Mingwe'', was transliterated by the Dutch and applied to the Iroquoian [[Susquehannock]] ("White ''Minquas''") and [[Erie people]] ("Black ''Minquas''"). Another variation was the later term ''[[Mingo]]'', which English-speaking colonists and settlers used to refer to descendants of remnant tribes who had been partly assimilated into the Six Nations of the [[Iroquois]] and later migrated into Ohio and the Midwest under pressure from European-American settlers.


The Nottoway suffered high fatalities from [[epidemic]]s of new [[Eurasia]]n diseases, such as [[measles]] and [[smallpox]], to which they had no natural [[immunity (medical)|immunity]]. They contracted the diseases from European contact, as these diseases were by then [[Endemic (epidemiology)|endemic]] among Europeans. Tribal warfare and encroaching colonists also reduced the population.
==Language==
The [[Nottoway language]] became extinct well before 1900.<ref>Rudes, ''Sketch of the Nottoway Language''.</ref> At the time of European contact (1650), speakers numbered only in the hundreds. From then until 1735, a number of colonists learned the language and acted as official interpreters for the [[Colony of Virginia]], including Thomas Blunt, Henry Briggs, and Thomas Wynn. These interpreters also served the adjacent [[Meherrin]], as well as the [[Nansemond]], who spoke Nottoway in addition to their own Algonquian dialect of [[Powhatan language|Powhatan]].<ref>Helen Rountree, ''Pocahontas's People'' p. 108.</ref> The last two interpreters were dismissed in 1735, since the Nottoway by then were using English.


=== 18th-century history ===
By 1820, three elderly speakers of Nottoway were said to remain.<ref>Rudes, ''Sketch of...''.</ref> In that year John Wood collected over 250 word samples from one of these, Chief "Queen" [[Edith Turner]]. He sent them to [[Thomas Jefferson]], who shared them with [[Peter Stephen Du Ponceau]]. In their correspondence, these two men quickly confirmed that the Nottoway language was of the Iroquoian family. Several additional words, for a total of about 275, were collected by [[James Trezvant]] after 1831, and published by [[Albert Gallatin]] in 1836.
Remnants of the [[Nansemond]] and [[Weyanock]] joined the Nottoway in the early 18th century.<ref name=rountree194/> In 1705, the Nottoway may have numbered 400, based on colonial historian [[Robert Beverley Jr.]]'s observations.<ref name=rountree196/>


In 1711, two young Nottoway men attended the [[College of William and Mary]].<ref>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 194–96.</ref> After the [[Tuscarora War]] (1711–1715), Tuscarora people migrated north, where they became the sixth nation in the [[Haudenosaunee Confederacy]], and some Nottoway left with them.<ref name=rountree196>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 196.</ref>
In the early 20th century, [[John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt]] (1910) and Hoffman (1959) analyzed the Nottoway vocabulary in comparison with [[Tuscarora language|Tuscarora]], also Iroquoian, and found them closely related. The Tuscarora had lived in [[North Carolina]], likely migrating there from the Great Lakes area thousands of years before. Due to warfare and colonial pressure in the early eighteenth century, most of the surviving Tuscarora migrated north to New York to seek protection by alliance with the [[Iroquois Confederacy]]. They were accepted as its Sixth Nation. They declared their migration ended in 1722, and said that Tuscarora living elsewhere were no longer considered members of the tribe. A significant population in North Carolina claim descent from the Tuscarora and identify by that name.


The Nottoway who remained in Virginia signed a treaty with the British in 1713, that secured two small tracts of land within their historical territory.<ref name=rountree196/> They sold the smaller of the two tracts in 1734. In 1744, they sold 5,000 acres of their remaining land,<ref name=rountree196/> followed by sales in 1748 and 1756.<ref name=rountree197>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 197.</ref>
Since the early 2000s, the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe has been working hard to revitalize their traditional language, using Tuscarora vocabulary and grammar. The two languages are mutually intelligible and vary only in terms of dialect.


By 1772, only 35 Nottoway lived on their land, of which they leased half.<ref>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 198.</ref> At the end of the 19th century, the Weyanock merged completely into the Nottoway, with the surnames Wynoake and Wineoak appearing on public documents.<ref>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 199.</ref> When the tribe sold more land in 1794, the Nottoway consisted of 7 men and 10 women and children.<ref name=rountree200>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 200.</ref>
==History ==
The Nottoway, like their close Iroquoian neighbors, the Meherrin and Tuscarora, lived just west of the [[Atlantic Seaboard fall line|Fall Line]] in the [[Piedmont (United States)|Piedmont]] region. English explorer Edward Bland is believed to have been the first European to encounter them, when he made an expedition from [[Fort Henry (Virginia)|Fort Henry]]. He noted meeting them in his journal for August 27, 1650. At the time, the people numbered no more than 400–500. Bland visited two of their three towns, on Stoney Creek and the Rowantee Branch of the [[Nottoway River]], in what is now [[Sussex County, Virginia|Sussex County]]. These towns were led by the brothers ''Oyeocker'' and ''Chounerounte''.


=== 19th-century history ===
The Nottoway and Meherrin became friendly with the English. They were the only tribes to send [[warrior]]s to help the English against the [[Susquehannock]] in 1675 (this Iroquoian tribe was based in Pennsylvania) in 1675. Following [[Bacon's Rebellion]], both tribes signed the [[Treaty of 1677]], becoming Tributary Nations to the Colony of Virginia.
From 1803 to 1809, Southampton County courts heard a protracted land dispute.<ref name=rountree200/> At the time, as historian Helen C. Rountree wrote, "The Nottoway had no formally organized government. European-American trustees tasked with overseeing tribal issues were charged with drafting bylaws for the tribe.<ref name=rountree200/> Tribal members married European-American and African-American spouses.<ref name=rountree197/>


In 1808, only 17 Nottoway survived, including Billy Woodson and Edith Turner, who became a chief. They owned 3,900 acres and cultivated 144 acres of corn.<ref>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 201.</ref> Turner, who ran a successful farm on the reservation, successfully advocated for four Nottoway orphans to return to the tribe.<ref>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 202–03.</ref>
By 1681, hostile tribes caused the Nottoway to relocate southward to Assamoosick Swamp in modern Surry County. In 1694 they moved again, to the mouth of a swamp in what is now [[Southampton County, Virginia|Southampton County]]. Around this time, they absorbed the remnants of the [[Eno people|Eno]] an Algonquian-speaking tribe that had formerly been part of the [[Powhatan]] confederacy.<ref>Thomas C. Parramore, 1978, ''Southampton County'' p.1-5.</ref> In the early 1700s, the Nottoway also absorbed a group of Nansemond known as the "Traditional Nansemond." The Nansemond were the only Powhatan tribe that regularly traded with the Nottoway and spoke the Nottoway language. In a court case against tribal treasurer Jeremiah Cobb in 1849-1852, James and Jincy Taylor were identified as headmen who led the "Nottoway and Nansemond Tribe of Indians."


In 1818, tribal members petitioned the [[Virginia General Assembly]] to be allowed to sell almost half of the remaining 3,912 acres of reservation land. The petition stated that there were only 26 Nottoways.<ref>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 206–07.</ref> By 1821, 30 Nottoways requested termination and for their land to be allotted in fee simple title.<ref>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 207.</ref> The Virginia General Assembly rejected that request and another in 1822.<ref>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 208.</ref> In 1823, Billy Woodson (Nottoway), an educated son of a European-American, requested termination, and in 1824 Virginia passed a law that would gradually terminate its responsibility and allowed remaining Nottoways to request individual allotment of land.<ref>Rountree, 205, 208–09.</ref> Woodson (under the name Bozeman) and Turner applied for their allotment and shares of a fund in 1830.<ref>Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 209.</ref> When Turner died in 1838, her estate went to Edwin Turner (Nottoway), whose children owned the last of the Nottoway reservation.<ref>Rountree, 209.</ref> While other tribal members received individual land allotments through the years, Turner kept his and purchased more land.<ref>Rountree, 211.</ref> The last tribally held land was allotted in 1878.<ref>Rountree, 212.</ref>
Although never numerous, the Nottoway maintained cultural continuity. They did not disappear from records identified as Indian, merge into other tribes, or get pushed too far from their original homeland. Scholars believe the early Nottoway were similar in culture to the Tuscarora and Meherrin. The Nottoway, much like the Tuscarora, consisted of seven [[clan]]s: Wolf, Deer, Eel, Beaver, Bear, Snipe, and Turtle. The tribe depended on the cultivation of staples, such as the [[three sisters (agriculture)|three sisters]] varieties of [[maize]], [[cucurbita|squash]], and [[bean]]s. The cultivation and processing of crops was typically done by women, who also selected and preserved varieties of seeds to produce different types of crops. The men hunted game and fished in the rivers. They built multi-family dwellings known as [[longhouse]]s in communities which they protected by [[stockade]] fences known as palisades.


Despite an 1833 Virginia law that stated descendants of English and American Indian people were "persons of mixed blood, not being negroes of mulattos"; however, with the end of the reservation, white Virginians considered them to be "free Negroes because of their African ancestry," as Rountree wrote.<ref>Rountree, 205, 209.</ref>
The Nottoway suffered high fatalities from [[epidemic]]s of new [[Eurasia]]n diseases, such as [[measles]] and [[smallpox]], to which they had no natural [[immunity (medical)|immunity]]. They contracted the diseases from European contact, as these diseases were by then [[Endemic (epidemiology)|endemic]] among Europeans. Tribal warfare and encroaching colonists also reduced the population.


== Culture ==
When the Tuscarora migrated northward ca. 1720 to become the Sixth Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy in New York, some Nottoway also migrated there, while others remained in Virginia. It is likely that some descendants of the Iroquois nations, especially among the Tuscarora and Oneida, with whom they lived in New York and Canada, also have Nottoway ancestry.
[[File:Chief Walter D. "Red Hawk" Brown III.jpg|thumb|140px|Chief Walter D. "Red Hawk" Brown III of the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe]]
The tribe depended on the cultivation of staples, such as the [[three sisters (agriculture)|three sisters]], varieties of [[maize]], [[cucurbita|squash]], and [[bean]]s. The cultivation and processing of crops were typically done by women, who also selected and preserved varieties of seeds to produce different types of crops. The men hunted game and fished in the rivers. They built multi-family dwellings known as [[longhouse]]s in communities which they protected by [[stockade]] fences known as palisades.{{cn|date=March 2022}}


The tribe likely had clans, but ethnographer [[John R. Swanton]] wrote, "the fact cannot be established."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Swanton |first1=John Reed |title=The Indians of the Southeastern United States, Volume 2 |date=1977 |publisher=Scholarly Press |location=St. Clair Shores, MI |isbn=0-403-00050-5 |page=517 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fZzFNI-71FcC}}</ref>
Some Nottoway returned to the South, with bands of Tuscarora and Meherrin joining and merging with them. These groups went to [[South Carolina]].


In the early 18th century, Nottoway girls wore [[wampum]] necklaces.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Swanton |first1=John Reed |title=The Indians of the Southeastern United States, Volume 2 |date=1977 |publisher=Scholarly Press |location=St. Clair Shores, MI |isbn=0-403-00050-5 |page=517 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fZzFNI-71FcC}}</ref>
In the 21st century, some common surnames among the Nottoway are Turner, Woodson, Rogers/Roger, Bozeman, Wineoak, Weaver, Bass, Step, Skipper, Kersey, Bennett, Blount, Scholar, Robins, Williams/Will, Edmunds, Bartlett, Bailey, Gabriel, Pearch, Kello, Walden, John, and Taylor.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}


== State-recognized tribes ==
By the 1830s in response before and after [[Nat Turners Rebellion]] many Nottoway descendants from the Artis, Byrd, Newsome, and other families migrated to Logan County, Ohio and lived among the [[Quakers]] and Wyandot families such as the Zanes. Some Nottoway descendants in Ohio reorganized as The Nottoway in Ohio, who submitted a letter of intent for federal recognition to the Bureau of Indian Affairs 07/03/2008 and some descendants are also enrolled win the Notoweega Nation. <ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unrecognized_tribes_in_the_United_States</ref>
The state of Virginia recognized two [[state-recognized tribes]], the [[Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia]] and the [[Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe]],<ref>{{cite web |title=State Recognized Tribes |url=https://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislators/quad-caucus/list-of-federal-and-state-recognized-tribes.aspx#State |website=National Conference of State Legislatures |access-date=5 April 2022}}</ref> in February 2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://leg6.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?101+sum+SJ12|title=SJ12 Nottoway Indian Tribe; extending state recognition thereto and grants representation on VCI.|work=Legislative Information System}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://leg6.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?101+sum+sj127|title=SJ127 Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe; extending state recognition thereto, representation on VCI.|work=Legislative Information System}}</ref> Neither is [[federally recognized]] as a [[Native American tribe]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Entities Recognized by and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs |url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/29/2021-01606/indian-entities-recognized-by-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of |website=Indian Affairs Bureau |publisher=Federal Register |access-date=21 January 2022 |pages=7554–58 |date=April 4, 2022}}</ref>


== References ==
== Notes ==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}


== References ==
*Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe Location-27345 Aquia Path - Cattashowrock Trail, Cattashowrock Town, Courtland, VA 23837
* Hodge, Frederick W. [https://books.google.com/books?id=i9c_AAAAYAAJ ''Handbook of North American Indians'']. Washington, DC.: Government Printing Press, 1912.

* {{cite journal |last1=Rountree |first1=Helen C. |title=The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia |journal=The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography |date=April 1987 |volume=95 |issue=2 |pages=193–214 |jstor=4248941 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4248941}}
==Further reading==
* Swanton, John R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Xpx6WoPz7xIC ''The Indian Tribes of North America'']. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145. Washington DC.: Government Printing Office, 1952.
* [http://www.cheroenhaka-nottoway.org/nottoway-recognition/index-recognition.htm "Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) State and Federal Recognition"], Cheroenhaka website
* Swanton, John R. ''The Indian Tribes of North America''. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145. Washington DC.: Government Printing Office, 1952.
* Hodge, Frederick W. ''Handbook of North American Indians''. Washington, DC.: Government Printing Press, 1910.


==External links==
==External links==
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[[Category:Native American tribes in South Carolina]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in South Carolina]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in North Carolina]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in North Carolina]]
[[Category:Nottoway| ]]

Latest revision as of 23:14, 24 October 2024

Nottoway
Nottoway River in historic Nottoway territory
Regions with significant populations
Virginia
Languages
English, Nottoway (historical)
Related ethnic groups
Nansemond, Weyanock,[1] Meherrin, Tuscarora

The Nottoway (also Nottaway) are an Iroquoian Native American tribe in Virginia. The Nottoway spoke a Nottoway language in the Iroquoian language family.

Names

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The term Nottoway may derive from Nadawa or Nadowessioux (widely translated as "poisonous snake"), an Algonquian-language term.

Frank Siebert suggested that the term natowewa stems from Proto-Algonquian *na:tawe:wa and refers to the Massasauga, a pit viper of the Great Lakes region. The extension of the meaning as "Iroquoian speakers" is secondary.[citation needed] In Algonquian languages beyond the geographical range of the viper (i.e. CreeInnuNaskapi and Eastern Algonquian), the term's primary reference continues to focus on *na:t- 'close upon, mover towards, go after, seek out, fetch' and *-awe: 'condition of heat, state of warmth,' but no longer refers to the viper.[citation needed]

A potential etymology in Virginia of *na:tawe:wa (Nottoway) refers to *na:t- 'seeker' + -awe: 'fur,'[2] or literally 'traders'[3] The earliest colonial Virginia reference to "Nottoway" also frames Algonquian/Iroquoian exchanges in terms of trade: roanoke (shell beads) for skins (deer and otter).[4]

The Algonquian speakers also referred to the Nottoway, Meherrin and Tuscarora people (also of the Iroquoian-language family) as Mangoak or Mangoags, a term which English colonists used in their records from 1584 to 1650. This term, Mengwe or Mingwe, was used by the Dutch and applied to the Iroquoian Susquehannock ("White Minquas") and Erie people ("Black Minquas").[citation needed]

The name Cheroenhaka is an autonym for Nottoway people.[5] The meaning of the name Cheroenhaka (in Tuscarora: Čiruʼęhá·ka·ʼ[6]) is uncertain. (It has been spelled in various ways: Cherohakah, Cheroohoka or Tcherohaka.) The linguist Blair A. Rudes analyzed the second element as -hakaʼ meaning "one or people who is/are characterized in a certain way." He conjectured that the first element of the name was related to the Tuscarora term čárhuʼ (meaning "tobacco", as both tribes used this product in ceremonies).[7] The term has also been interpreted as "People at the Fork of the Stream".[8]

Language

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The Nottoway language is an Iroquoian language. It became extinct well before 1900.[7] At the time of European contact in 1650, speakers numbered only in the hundreds. From then until 1735, a number of colonists learned the language and acted as official interpreters for the Colony of Virginia, including Thomas Blunt, Henry Briggs, and Thomas Wynn. These interpreters also served the adjacent Meherrin, as well as the Nansemond, who spoke Nottoway in addition to their own Algonquian dialect of Powhatan.[9] The last two interpreters were dismissed in 1735 since the Nottoway by then were using English.

By 1820, three elderly people still spoke Nottoway.[7] In that year John Wood collected over 250-word samples from one of these, Chief Edith Turner (Nottoway, ca. 1754–1838). He sent them to Thomas Jefferson, who shared them with Peter Stephen Du Ponceau. In their correspondence, these two men quickly confirmed that the Nottoway language was of the Iroquoian family. Several additional words, for a total of about 275, were collected by James Trezvant after 1831 and published by Albert Gallatin in 1836.[citation needed]

In the early 20th century, John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt (1910) and Hoffman (1959) analyzed the Nottoway vocabulary in comparison with Tuscarora, also Iroquoian, and found them closely related.[citation needed]

History

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17th–century

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The Nottoway, like their close, fellow Iroquoian neighbors, the Meherrin and Tuscarora, lived just west of the Fall Line in the Piedmont region. English explorer Edward Bland is believed to have been the first European to encounter them when he made an expedition from Fort Henry. He noted meeting them in his journal on August 27, 1650. At the time, the Nottoway numbered no more than 400 to 500. Bland visited two of their three towns, on Stony Creek and the Rowantee Branch of the Nottoway River, in what is now Sussex County. These towns were led by the brothers Oyeocker and Chounerounte.[citation needed]

A Nottoway representative signed the Treaty of Middle Plantation of 1677 in 1680, establishing the tribe as a tributary to the Virginia colony.[1] English squatters encroached on their lands.[1]

By 1681, hostile tribes caused the Nottoway to relocate southward to Assamoosick Swamp in modern Surry County. In 1694 they moved again, to the mouth of a swamp in what is now Southampton County. Around this time, they absorbed the remnants of the Weyanoke, an Algonquian-speaking tribe that had formerly been part of the Powhatan confederacy.[10]

The Nottoway suffered high fatalities from epidemics of new Eurasian diseases, such as measles and smallpox, to which they had no natural immunity. They contracted the diseases from European contact, as these diseases were by then endemic among Europeans. Tribal warfare and encroaching colonists also reduced the population.

18th-century history

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Remnants of the Nansemond and Weyanock joined the Nottoway in the early 18th century.[1] In 1705, the Nottoway may have numbered 400, based on colonial historian Robert Beverley Jr.'s observations.[11]

In 1711, two young Nottoway men attended the College of William and Mary.[12] After the Tuscarora War (1711–1715), Tuscarora people migrated north, where they became the sixth nation in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and some Nottoway left with them.[11]

The Nottoway who remained in Virginia signed a treaty with the British in 1713, that secured two small tracts of land within their historical territory.[11] They sold the smaller of the two tracts in 1734. In 1744, they sold 5,000 acres of their remaining land,[11] followed by sales in 1748 and 1756.[13]

By 1772, only 35 Nottoway lived on their land, of which they leased half.[14] At the end of the 19th century, the Weyanock merged completely into the Nottoway, with the surnames Wynoake and Wineoak appearing on public documents.[15] When the tribe sold more land in 1794, the Nottoway consisted of 7 men and 10 women and children.[16]

19th-century history

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From 1803 to 1809, Southampton County courts heard a protracted land dispute.[16] At the time, as historian Helen C. Rountree wrote, "The Nottoway had no formally organized government. European-American trustees tasked with overseeing tribal issues were charged with drafting bylaws for the tribe.[16] Tribal members married European-American and African-American spouses.[13]

In 1808, only 17 Nottoway survived, including Billy Woodson and Edith Turner, who became a chief. They owned 3,900 acres and cultivated 144 acres of corn.[17] Turner, who ran a successful farm on the reservation, successfully advocated for four Nottoway orphans to return to the tribe.[18]

In 1818, tribal members petitioned the Virginia General Assembly to be allowed to sell almost half of the remaining 3,912 acres of reservation land. The petition stated that there were only 26 Nottoways.[19] By 1821, 30 Nottoways requested termination and for their land to be allotted in fee simple title.[20] The Virginia General Assembly rejected that request and another in 1822.[21] In 1823, Billy Woodson (Nottoway), an educated son of a European-American, requested termination, and in 1824 Virginia passed a law that would gradually terminate its responsibility and allowed remaining Nottoways to request individual allotment of land.[22] Woodson (under the name Bozeman) and Turner applied for their allotment and shares of a fund in 1830.[23] When Turner died in 1838, her estate went to Edwin Turner (Nottoway), whose children owned the last of the Nottoway reservation.[24] While other tribal members received individual land allotments through the years, Turner kept his and purchased more land.[25] The last tribally held land was allotted in 1878.[26]

Despite an 1833 Virginia law that stated descendants of English and American Indian people were "persons of mixed blood, not being negroes of mulattos"; however, with the end of the reservation, white Virginians considered them to be "free Negroes because of their African ancestry," as Rountree wrote.[27]

Culture

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Chief Walter D. "Red Hawk" Brown III of the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe

The tribe depended on the cultivation of staples, such as the three sisters, varieties of maize, squash, and beans. The cultivation and processing of crops were typically done by women, who also selected and preserved varieties of seeds to produce different types of crops. The men hunted game and fished in the rivers. They built multi-family dwellings known as longhouses in communities which they protected by stockade fences known as palisades.[citation needed]

The tribe likely had clans, but ethnographer John R. Swanton wrote, "the fact cannot be established."[28]

In the early 18th century, Nottoway girls wore wampum necklaces.[29]

State-recognized tribes

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The state of Virginia recognized two state-recognized tribes, the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe,[30] in February 2010.[31][32] Neither is federally recognized as a Native American tribe.[33]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 194.
  2. ^ Siebert, Frank T. (1996). Anthropological Linguistics. Vol. 38, No.4. pp. 635–642.
  3. ^ Woodard, Buck (2010). Ethnographic View of the Nottoway, 1700–1750.
  4. ^ Bland, Edward (1650). The Discovery of New Brittaine.
  5. ^ Hodge, Frederick Webb (1912). Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico: N-Z. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. p. 87.
  6. ^ Rudes, Blair A. (1999). Tuscarora English Dictionary. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
  7. ^ a b c Rudes, Blair (1981). Sketch of the Nottoway Language from a Historical-Comparative Perspective. University of Chicago Press.
  8. ^ "Cheroenhaka Nottoway Indian Tribe History".
  9. ^ Helen Rountree. Pocahontas's People. p. 108.
  10. ^ Thomas C. Parramore (1978). Southampton County. pp. 1–5.
  11. ^ a b c d Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 196.
  12. ^ Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 194–96.
  13. ^ a b Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 197.
  14. ^ Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 198.
  15. ^ Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 199.
  16. ^ a b c Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 200.
  17. ^ Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 201.
  18. ^ Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 202–03.
  19. ^ Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 206–07.
  20. ^ Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 207.
  21. ^ Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 208.
  22. ^ Rountree, 205, 208–09.
  23. ^ Rountree, "The Termination and Dispersal of the Nottoway Indians of Virginia," 209.
  24. ^ Rountree, 209.
  25. ^ Rountree, 211.
  26. ^ Rountree, 212.
  27. ^ Rountree, 205, 209.
  28. ^ Swanton, John Reed (1977). The Indians of the Southeastern United States, Volume 2. St. Clair Shores, MI: Scholarly Press. p. 517. ISBN 0-403-00050-5.
  29. ^ Swanton, John Reed (1977). The Indians of the Southeastern United States, Volume 2. St. Clair Shores, MI: Scholarly Press. p. 517. ISBN 0-403-00050-5.
  30. ^ "State Recognized Tribes". National Conference of State Legislatures. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
  31. ^ "SJ12 Nottoway Indian Tribe; extending state recognition thereto and grants representation on VCI". Legislative Information System.
  32. ^ "SJ127 Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe; extending state recognition thereto, representation on VCI". Legislative Information System.
  33. ^ "Indian Entities Recognized by and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs". Indian Affairs Bureau. Federal Register. April 4, 2022. pp. 7554–58. Retrieved 21 January 2022.

References

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